grill warning – carbon monoxide treated tuna; it’s out there!

Freshness is an important eating quality of tuna that is indicated by the bright red colour of the raw meat. This desirable colour should be due to oxygenated muscle pigments and not caused by carbon monoxide (CO) treatment.

“CO tuna”, or “exhaust tuna” as we think it should be known, has undergone a harmless process according to the US Food and Drug Administration and our own Food Safety Authority (FSANZ). Well, the process may be harmless, but many countries including Japan, Canada and those in the European Union have banned the practice because of fears that it could be used to mask spoiled fish.

Spoilage can still continue after fish is CO-treated, but the colour will remain that bright pinkish red. You could have this product in your chiller looking as fresh as a daisy, when in fact it is well past its use-by date and potentially harbouring some very nasty bugs.

The question we have to ask is why anyone would treat tuna with carbon monoxide other than to disguise its quality? Perhaps because it is more appealing looking like a lump of pink fluorescent play dough – yeah right!

So look for fresh tuna that has a deep red colour (untreated), not an unnatural bright pink colour (treated) and if a strange pink piece of tuna selling for less than the usual 30 bucks a kilo comes your way, just wonder why. Freshness is the single most important factor in ensuring great tasting fish. The colour of tuna varies from fish to fish because of diet, metabolism, oil content, age and species. Try the many varieties of tuna and enjoy their subtle differences.

Opinion on carbon-monoxide-treated tuna is somewhat divided, but here at grill divided we are not – this is a bloody dangerous practice and should be banned!